Selçuk Üniversitesi Selçuklu Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

The Seljuks won the Battle of Myriokephalon which took place between the contracting states as the result of the struggles of Byzantine Empire to collapse the Turkey Seljuk Empire and to expel Turks from Anatolia. This victory was an important event that ensured that Anatolia would become the Turkish homeland. Nevertheless, the precise location of the Myriokephalon Battle is still not known. There have been many articles and papers written on the subject up to now but none of them have been able to satisfy either the public or historians. The negligence and responsibility for that situation belongs to the Turkish History Council and the Ministry of Culture.

Essentially, the arguments related to the road chosen by the Emperor who aimed to come to Konya while setting out from İstanbul to Konya, the capital of Seljuks, and the battlefield result from the lack of information in the sources, complexity of the battlefield, the fact that there are a number of different roads leading to Konya, commentaries revealed without visiting and examining the region, decisions taken, determinations based on just one source and the lack of knowledge about the topography of the battlefield.

The historians who analysed the easiest and least burdensome route that an army might take from Denizli to Konya focused on Karamık Beli, Düzbel, Kumdanlı Plain, Sultandağı, Gelendost and Kufi Çayı valley which were used as a transit road in the region. At the same time, the issue got more complicated because of the certain researchers opining about it were influenced by formers, their lack of opportunity to examine the topography of the battlefield and the unsubstantiated claims of the curious regional researchers and writers who were unaware of methodology.

Consequently, a committee consisting of archaeologists, historians, geoscientist, engineers and geographers who will be appointed by the Presidency of the Turkish History Council should make certain studies analysing and searching the issue in order to get certain results on the route around Konya, where a great army can lead, indicating topographic structure stated in the sources.

In this paper drawing attention an issue which had not been dwelled on before, we have tried to find out clues that will help to find the battlefield and the route taken by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel Komnenus at the Battle of Myriokephalon analysing the roads taken before 1176 by the Byzantines and Crusaders who led to Konya.